Saturday, April 13, 2013

I think I would actually give this book 3.5 stars if I could. But it doesn’t quite meet 4 star potential, so I have to lean towards 3. This book pretty much suffered from middle book syndrome.

I had pretty high expectations for this book – the summary sounded fricken awesome! Kate comes back from her 6 month vacation in Greece, and Henry is distancing himself. But the Titan lord, Cronus (a.k.a. Kronos), is waking up and when Henry is captured, it’s up to Kate to save him – but it means requesting the help of the one person she never wants to meet – Persephone. Doesn’t that sound amazing? But it actually let me down, which is why it is only getting 3.5 stars.

This book was soo slow!!! It mostly centered on Kate’s whining. Henry was distancing himself, and she kept throwing herself a pity party. THE ENTIRE BOOK. We weren’t entirely sure why Henry was pulling away – which was also frustrating for me. But all she did was complain and second guess herself – talk about insecure! Geez. And so many characters would try to pull her out of it, but she just wanted to miserable, and it was so annoying as a reader. I almost didn’t care about her anymore.

The fact that Cronus was coming back to life though is exciting. I always love a good God vs. Titan war! Heehee. And Persephone actually surprised me. She was a little annoying at first, but she kinda grew on me and she ended up being a decent person. I appreciated that. And I never really believed that she would ever get back with Henry – because she had chosen to leave that life. It was interesting to get her perspective on things. Overall I liked her.

The journey through the Underworld was a little slow. I think Henry got captured around page 60, and then until about page 170 they were traveling through the Underworld. The book is a quick read, but the pacing of this book wasn’t quite as good as the first book. But like I said, it is mainly just setting up the next book.

One thing I did like though was that I believed Kate and Henry’s fight toward the end. Though I wasn’t sure why Henry was acting the way he was, I’ve always believed he loved Kate and it pissed me off that she was so insecure about it. So their fight was very real to me. It didn’t feel forced, which I thought it would since she had such a pity party for herself the entire book.

The battle of the book actually ended around page 200, so that meant there were 100 pages of resolution! Actually, it was just another 100 pages leading you up to the next book. I think it was all necessary, but it was definitely slow. But at least it lead up to a crazy cliffhanger. I’m really glad I received the next book from Edelweiss so I don’t have to sit on that cliffhanger.

Poor Kate has been betrayed by quite a few people she trusted, but it makes the Gods look more like their actual myth. I’m enjoying the series, I just wish this book had more going on, because it was a real let down after the summary. Still entertaining and I really want to read the next book, but I was expecting this to be a lot better. And maybe if Kate didn’t fight with Henry like every time they were together or throw herself a pity party every time she had inner monologue, it would have been a lot better. But I found myself wanting to tear my hair my hair out through a good portion of the book because she was so insecure – you’re a fricken Greek Goddess, get over it.

Hopefully the next one isn’t as disappointing as this one. But the overall story arc was still interesting with Cronus and Calliope’s betrayal still in effect from the first book. Just muddle through and then the ending gets better and should lead in to a better third book – I hope.